NDIA Accountability Project

Rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with disabilities

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SNAICC

14 July 2024

Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 E: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au

Re: National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

deeply concerned about this issue.

Dear Community Affairs Legislation Committee members,

SNAICC welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee’s Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 (the Inquiry).

We are the national non-government peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and work for the fulfillment of the rights of our children, to ensure their safety, development and wellbeing.

Since 1981, SNAICC has been a passionate national voice representing the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. At the heart of our work is championing the principles of community control and self-determination as the means for sustained improvements for children and families – whether in child protection and wellbeing or early childhood education and development.

Our submission highlights two specific content areas for the Committee’s consideration. First, the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the distinct rights held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Second, the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability communicated through the advocacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies and organisations working in the disability sector.

The rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and children

Self-determination SNAICC advocates for the full enactment of self-determination in all legislation, policies, and strategies. Self-determination describes the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Self-Determination

to autonomy and self-governance.

The Productivity Commission, in their review of the National Agreement, stated “governments must share power, recognising that the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have control over decisions that affect their lives is central to self-determination” and acknowledged the right is set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), of which Australia is a signatory.

For too long, governments have decided what works and what doesn’t for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities without delivering meaningful and tangible positive change for our children and families. Enacting self-determination is critical to designing and implementing effective policies that achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and with respect to this Inquiry, better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and children with disabilities.

In July 2020, the Australian Government, all state and territory governments, and the Coalition of Peaks signed the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (National Agreement). The National Agreement seeks to overcome the entrenched inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, pushing for equality in life outcomes for all Australians.

The National Agreement is built around four Priority Reforms to change the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations, and people across the country:

  • Formal Partnerships and Shared Decision Making
  • Building the Community Controlled Sector
  • Transforming Government Organisations
  • Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level.

The Priority Reforms must inform all government action including legislation, policy, and practice, whether these actions are targeted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or impact them as part of the general population. The National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the Act) must align with the Priority Reforms and there is an opportunity to implement this alignment through the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 (the Bill), an alignment which is lacking in the current draft of the Bill.

Rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with disabilities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with disability have a distinct set of rights, as children under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), as Indigenous people under UNDRIP, and as a person with a disability under United Nations Convention on the

Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has provided guidance on the implementation of the UNCRC to protect the rights of Indigenous children, which includes special measures to ensure access to culturally appropriate services including in health and social services.

Acknowledgement of these rights is critical as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with disability are overrepresented in both the child protection and youth justice systems and are increasingly suspended and excluded from the education system. Undiagnosed disability and developmental delay make children and young people in contact with the child protection, youth justice and education systems incredibly vulnerable to unfair and inequitable treatment and limited access to timely diagnoses and appropriate disability and psychosocial supports.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents with disability experience discrimination in the form of over surveillance and insufficient support. Lack of supports for both children and parents with disabilities contributes significantly to the removal of children to out-of-home care, and separation of children from family, culture and Country.

SNAICC notes the recommendation made by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (the Royal Commission) for the enactment of an Australian Disability Rights Act to recognise the rights of people with disability to equitable access of health services including “the right of First Nations people with a disability to receive health care that is culturally safe and recognises the importance of their personal connection to community and Country”.

Human rights, including children’s rights, are interconnected, inalienable and indivisible, unable to be considered in isolation or delivered only in part. The UNCRC, UNDRIP and UNCRPD must be incorporated the Bill and the Statement of Compatibility with human rights to uphold the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with disabilities and reflect the special measures required to protect their distinct rights.

Voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability

SNAICC acknowledges the continued work and advocacy of the First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN) and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) to support and improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities.

We join FPDN and NACCHO in their concerns regarding the lack of recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Bill and the potential of proposed changes to further

Submission

embed systemic discrimination for Indigenous people, particularly those living in regional and remote areas. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability must be acknowledged and included in this Inquiry and in the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

SNAICC supports calls for the Committee to consider the Royal Commission’s recommendations in First Nations people with a disability Final Report Volume 9 which will have an immediate impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability, for example:

  • Co-designed parenting capacity assessments for First Nations parents with disability
  • Screening First Nations children (0-5) entering out-of-home care using the ASQ-TRAK tool
  • Block funding for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Sector to flexibly deliver services and support to First Nations people with a disability
  • Legislative amendments to provide that the National Disability Insurance Agency Board includes at least one First Nations person at all times, and references participation in cultural life in addition to participation in social and economic life.7

SNAICC would also like to draw the Committee’s attention to the submissions and evidence provided by FPDN and NACCHO during the previous Inquiry the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendments (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 [Provisions] and FPDN’s recent correspondence to the Committee as they outline the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and community. We urge the Committee’s consideration of these substantive matters for the purposes of this Inquiry.

SNAICC is pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the Inquiry and is available to be contacted and provide the Committee with additional information on the points raised in this submission, if required.

Warm regards,

Catherine Liddle Chief Executive Officer

7 Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, ‘First Nations People with a Disability, Final Report Volume 9’. Retrieved from: https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/final-report-volume-9-first-nations-people-disability pgs. 7-12.